More Universities Offering Organic Fare
The green movement is not just something that can be seen in the plethora of reusable shopping bags at the grocery store or the rows of jam-packed recycling bins dotting the driveways of neighborhood streets on garbage day – it is also a movement occurring in the way some people eat. Noshing on sustainable foods is one of the best ways to benefit the environment, and as the green revolution makes over college campuses across the nation to become more energy efficient and reduce waste, it only makes sense that the kitchens and dining halls of those same schools follow suit.
Sustainable food is food that is grown locally using environmentally-friendly methods, such as the organic farming tactic of using no pesticides or other chemical elements. Sustainable livestock are animals that have been treated humanely and not subjected to unnecessary medications or hormones. Many mass-production livestock centers and farms use pesticides and growth hormones to make beefier animals and more pest and drought-resistant crops, but as a result, the end product may be contaminated by chemicals and the surrounding environment can be stripped of its nutrients due to the toll that mass production farming takes on the soil. In addition, shipping in these products from around the country damages the environment with the burning fossil fuels it takes to transport the produce and meats. Sustainable food, because it is produced locally and on a smaller scale with fewer or no chemical components, is much more ecologically-friendly.
As more students demand it, more colleges are opting to feature more and more organic fare purchased from local farms. For example, Yale University is a big supporter of sustainable eats and has established the Yale Sustainable Food Project to help it transition more into using primarily locally-bought produce and livestock. Now, instead of having the bulk of its salsa trucked in from California, it purchases it from an organic farm in South Glastonbury, Conn. Yale is not the only university to begin seeing promise in the sustainable food movement. Other big universities, like Boston University, are also offering more organic fare to feed hungry students in an effort to improve their green stance. With time, more schools will likely gravitate towards offering its students more organic and healthy eats in an effort to become more environmentally-friendly, more supportive of local businesses in the community, as well as provide its scholars with a more healthy and nutritious diet.
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